No one would blame UFC flyweight Joseph Benavidez if was a little burned out on MMA.

Eleven years of fighting, 20 fights under the Zuffa umbrella, two failed title bids, and a ticket to essentially train his replacement as a coach on “The Ultimate Fighter 24” – these are just a few of the bullet points in Benavidez’s long career.

And that doesn’t even count his recent move from one of the world’s most renowned MMA gyms, Team Alpha Male in Sacramento, Calif., to coaches at Elevation Fight Team and Bang Muay Thai in Denver.

Benavidez has seen a lot. But thankfully, he says, he hasn’t seen it all.

“It’s just a different love,” Benavidez, who coaches opposite onetime tittle challenger Henry Cejudo on the reality show, told MMAjunkie Radio. “When you’re young, it’s that first stage of love, where you’re just crazy and obsessed and you want to text it every day. But now, I love it as a family member, like this is a part of me, no matter what happens.

“I can honestly say that this new change I’ve made in training, that gave me a new – not a new – but a higher love for it. When you do something for 10 years and get a change of scenery, it’s that much more exciting. I feel like I’m back in that discomfort, where you need that discomfort to grow.

“Even the show, that helped me so much. I learned so much about myself and fell in love with the sport even more, because I could look at it from a different perspective. After 11 years of fighting, being able to look at it like that and help guys and come at it from a different side of the sport was just huge.”

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“TUF 24,” which debuted on FS1 on Aug. 31, puts regional champs in a tournament to determine the next challenger for the UFC flyweight belt. After three elimination-round fights, representatives from Bragging Rights Fight Series, Resurrection Fighting Alliance and Shooto Japan have graduated to the quarterfinals and are still in the running for a title shot.

Still, the winner of the show will undoubtedly be less qualified to fight for the title than Benavidez, who’s won five straight since a second loss to champ Demetrious Johnson in 2013.

Benavidez (24-4 MMA, 11-2 UFC) doesn’t carry young love for the title shot, but he plans to keep fighting until the opportunity arrives. At the conclusion of the show, he meets Cejudo (10-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC), who’s also pining for his second shot at the belt after a first attempt went south. They co-headline The Ultimate Fighter 24 Finale on Dec. 3 at The Pearl at Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas.

“I’m just controlling everything I can until I get there (to the title shot),” he said. “That’s always going to be the long-term goal, but you don’t think about that every day. You think I’m going to get better today, because it’s the little things that you need to do to get there anyway. I’m obsessed with that.”